Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Taking Time To Remember ❯ One-Shot

Taking Time To Remember:

 

Orochimaru always said; “the prettiest corpse is the one you take the time to remember.”

 

It was true.

 

In some strange way, it was something Orochimaru seemed to hold in high regard; the ability to fully accept and understand this concept, to understand the strange wistful smile that followed the remark.

 

The snake seemed to regard his murderous deeds as some sort of art form; he regularly spent time sitting in a comfortable chair, his pale chin resting on his hand as he stared into the dark. He told his lesser subordinates nothing as to his reasoning for this; he told Kabuto that it was his time to consider and reconsider the future; and he told Sasuke that it was his time to remember his prettiest corpses.

 

Whether the sennin noticed Sasuke's initial confusion at the assertion or not, was irrelevant. But it took months before he finally voiced a response to the Uchiha's occasional, cautiously curious questions on the subject.

 

It was Orochimaru's firm belief that knowledge was power; to deprive Sasuke of his answers, meant leaving him weak in his ignorance, and Orochimaru simply did not have weak subordinates. In the end, he assented to answering his protégée's question about his riddle, with another riddle.

 

“The prettiest corpse is the one you take the time to remember.”

 

His explanation of the words was vague; Sasuke knew it was something he was meant to work out for himself. Another lesson among lessons.

 

Lessons were learned constantly while in the Hidden Sound; practical lessons, the like of which would never be so emphasized in any other Village. And though Sasuke was trained mercilessly; until his teacher was satisfied with the progress he had made, he got no tests and therefore couldn't prove said progress to himself, or even truly experience what he learned.

 

These `tests' were, in fact, missions. But not missions in the sense Konoha had embodied; most were assassinations, or a stirring of rebellion in small but significant towns and villages.

 

These tests were where Sasuke attempted to find the answers to Orochimaru's riddle. Not simply the idea of the `prettiest corpses', but also of the man himself, a living enigma, whom Sasuke still couldn't understand.

 

It was difficult for the Uchiha to believe, in hindsight, that Orochimaru didn't have more than one motive for letting slip his `prettiest corpses' observation. Sasuke worked harder in those weeks; wanting to gain the rewarded missions in order to test the theory, and therefore progressed faster. It infuriated him to know that the snake could manipulate him so easily, but then again; he wasn't truly surprised either.

 

The long-awaited answer to his question, came some months after he learned what the question was.

 

Ironically, he wasn't even on a mission at the time. He was doing some night time training; extra sensory work with his Sharingan eyes, which though they could see in the dark, often gave him problems when trying to concentrate on more than enemy at once while guarding in the dark. His lack of 360 degree vision was occasionally rather annoying.

 

He had paused for a moment, deactivating his Sharingan in order to catch his breath, and heard a very odd sound. Immediately sensing a presence, and being caught off guard, meant that he reacted on instinct. The body was lying at his feet well before his mind fully registered what was happening.

 

Sasuke could remember looking down at the body in the moonlight; realising that it was probably a lost traveller, and noticing that there was something about the woman's face that was somehow endearing, even in death.

 

It was slight. Had he not paused to look, as he had taught himself in the past months, he would not have noticed it. In that instant, he knew that the faceless nins and people that died because of him were simply another mark on his non-existent tally. He couldn't even describe the sensation of it; the thoughts that ran through his mind. He must have been standing in that same position for hours; unmoving, pondering, and staring at the mass of flesh and blood wounds with nothing short of wonder and mild acknowledgment.

 

Orochimaru really was right. It really was… somehow…

 

The prettiest corpse he'd ever seen.